Control Engineering

Paul Grayson

Team #06 AdvantGuardium
July 9, 2007

Robots For Defense

This evening one of the main stories on news programs all over the TV dial was about how far the US Army has had to relax its eligibility standards to recruit the numbers of people it needs. Congress has required the armed forces to buy and install 400,000 driverless systems.  Putting these systems to work will reduce the number of people needed to be recruited or drafted by 800,000 since there are usually two drivers per vehicle to keep it operating 24/7.  The system that the US Army needs does not exist yet and this is where control engineers have the education and experience to help save lives and make the world a safer place.  You can help by supporting a team, pick any team and give them a hand; they will be that much better because of it.   Volunteers are always welcome on the AIM Team if you would like to join my team where people work from a distance.

Team #06 on my list is AvantGuardium.  They don't seem to have a snail mail address, a phone number, an e-mail address, a website or anything written about them. They didn't get a million dollar DARPA development grant but they are still on The List.



A very old picture of AvantGuardium's 2007 Urban Challenge vehicle RONIN.

Not much has been made public about this team except for what they wrote for the DARPA web site about themselves:
Bethesda, MD -- "Team AvantGuardium was formed through extensive international cooperation in the development and application of unmanned robotic vehicles. Team AvantGuardium is comprised of leaders in the Israeli and American defense technologies, engineering, and services industries. The core technology members have garnered years of experience and knowledge through operational UGV development and fielding in real world applications, as well as the successful participation (2nd place) in the 2004 DARPA Grand Challenge Race. Team AvantGuardium is fully committed to meeting the objectives of the DARPA Urban Challenge and the applied technology. "  



Here is their published picture.  Do you recognize any of the unnamed people in this picture?

Who is that masked team?  Will they go farther than the 6 miles (out of 145 miles) they did in the 2004 race? Second place was not finishing the race, it was going the second farthest of 15 teams that didn't get very far.  This is of course a remarkable achievement, I don't dismiss that.  I would have liked to have seen someone finish that first race.  What was their name in the Mar. 2004 race?  What was their vehicles name in the 2004 race?  How far did they get - exactly?  What knocked them out of the race so early?  Where were they for the Oct. 2005 race?  What are the odds on them for them to win, show, or place in the Nov. 2007 race?

A good bar game for techies, much like trying to recite Santa's reindeer's names, can you name the fifteen 2004 vehicles or the fifteen 2004 teams?  And for the tiebreaker of oolies, can explain the 15 tragic flaws (faults/failures) that knocked each of them out of the race and at what mile marker?  Or for those with a bent for really obscure facts can you name the 106 teams that signed up to be in the first race or the 195 teams that signed up to be in the second race or the 89 teams that signed up to be in the third race?

Which one ate a rock?  Which one burned its tires off?  Which one had an electrical fire? etc. etc. Let me know if you know any of the answers.   

"It is necessary for us to learn from others' mistakes. You will not live long enough to make them all yourself."
             -- ADM Hyman Rickover (1900 - 1986)

There is a tremendous amount of effort going into preparing for the DARPA series and I would like to recognize the people and their acomplishments here.  Because of their work the body of knowledge about driverless systems is growing rapidly.  Large numbers of people are educating themselves in this not yet extablished but soon to be big branch of automatic guided vehicles.  Write to me and tell me about what you have acomplished or what you have learded about driverless vehicles. 

Paul F. Grayson - Journalist
Control Engineering Magazine
390 4-Mile Rd. S.
Traverse City, MI 49686-8411
(231) 946-0187 
pgrayson@aimagic.org
http://www.controleng.com/blog/1180000318.html

Posted by Paul Grayson on July 9, 2007 | Comments (0)